Suddenly, a cycling holiday in Norfolk seems very appealing...Forget your Spanish beaches or Nile cruises. Bike hire, B&B it. The no-hassle option (unless there's a rail strike...!)
Obviously, I don't want to make light of the situation but am not going to comment directly on the substance. Except to say that I had some clues yesterday that something was afoot but I am too thick to put the clues together and produce a blogpost saying "Exclusive: Something about to happen..."
All I can say is that I'm jolly grateful I'm not flying today, or for the foreseeable future. It's probably not so bad if you're doing supershorthaul, but imagine if you're on a flight of more than an hour or so and you have absolutely nothing to read except the inflight mag, and you can't have your personal entertainment gadgets. Imagine if they tried to separate me from my camera. It sems that even toddlers ca n't take on teddy bears or colouring books. Okay, you're allowed prescription medicines but suppose you really need cough syrup, indigestion tablets, travel sweets, superstrong painkillers. Or are participating in a drugs trial with tablets that are only identified by code number. Water and stuff. Suppose, suppose, suppose...
Overheard conversation: someone was due to fly from City to Manchester and is stuck at City unable to get on a plane but unable to head for the trains because his hand luggage is checked-in. Mind you that's only business travel. The media are making out that business travel is somehow essential yet leisure travel isn't. Hello, life quality...Obviously some business travel is always essential but much can be rearranged. Actually, as an individual, or a member of a group, if you have made all sorts of arrangements at enormous cost, you tend to see it as essential. You might lose your hotel booking if you don't check in by tonight. Maybe you've got connections at the other end, a cruise or some such. A wedding - or a funeral - to attend. Or the birth of a child (I'm thinking birth partners rather than about-to-drop mothers). Maybe you've got a much anticipated sports or ents event to attend. None of these are essential but then, nor is most business travel.
We have vague plans to do a day trip to France soon by private plane. I wonder if Biggin Hill Airport is subject to the same security levels...
